ALEX McLeish today revealed Blues had not yet made headway with the possible transfer of Spanish midfielder Michel.

The Blues boss flew out to the Basque region on Sunday to watch the Sporting Gijon schemer in a three-team tournament.

McLeish sat next to Michel’s agent Gelu Rodríguez, who has been trying to broker a deal between the clubs.

Michel is due to face Blues on Saturday in a friendly at St Andrew’s and no deal is expected to be struck before then – if at all.

McLeish said: “I’ve watched the guy, I don’t think that’s any secret. My identity was exposed in Spain the other night.

“We’ve had Michel and a number of other players under scrutiny over the summer but there is nothing cast in stone with anybody yet.”

Michel is rated at around 5.5 million euros by Gijon and is being courted by Valencia, Malaga and Espanyol.

“He’s a decent player,” said McLeish. “But, as I said, there are others on the radar. It’s not cut and dried the board will give me money for that.

“But I certainly feel that we do need an injection of players for certain positions, midfield being one of them.”

Following Fabian Delph’s move to Villa from Leeds United, interest in Craig Gardner could be rekindled.

But it seems all depends on whether McLeish can persuade the board to provide him with more funds.

McLeish reported that there was better news on Christian Benitez, the Ecuador striker who has been recovering from shoulder surgery. The manager said that Benitez could be fit for the opening game at Manchester United on August 16 after further assessment of his condition.

Initially McLeish had stated it was likely to be another four weeks before he was up the scratch.

“I wouldn’t rule it out, the United game,” said McLeish. “We will have to look at him in training over the next couple of days but time is up now in terms of repair of his injury.

“He’s still a little bit week in one or two of the exercises he has to work on, the weights, to strengthen the shoulder.

“But he’s ready to train and ready to join the group and I’m looking forward to seeing him in action.

“He’s probably a wee bit away in terms of his overall cardiovascular fitness because he hasn’t done much.

“He’s been training, slightly. But we’ve checked his shoulder and I think he’s ready to join the group.

“We certainly could be doing with a little bit of inspiration at the moment, and getting better sharpness out of the players. So I’ll be interested to see how he goes.”